


Silver Millennium

by DreamerSerenade



Series: The Four Crystals Series [2]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Crystal Tokyo Era, F/F, F/M, M/M, Post Sailor Stars, Pre-Crystal Tokyo, Pre-Silver Millennium Era, Silver Millennium Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23385598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamerSerenade/pseuds/DreamerSerenade
Summary: When Queen Serenity’s attempt to undo the forgetting of the Moon Kingdom goes haywire, the entire population of Earth remembers a year that never was and an Apocalypse that never came. Queen Beryl did not live in their conscious mind but memory does not forget. When the past and future collide in the present, Usagi must ensure the survival of her ideal path, even if that means remembering the painful beginnings of her tragic love. Sequel to Lunar Expedition.
Relationships: Aino Minako/Hino Rei, Artemis/Luna (Sailor Moon), Chiba Mamoru/Tsukino Usagi, Kino Makoto/Other(s), Mizuno Ami/Other(s)
Series: The Four Crystals Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/27045
Comments: 20
Kudos: 72





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Sailor Moon. All rights reserved to Naoko Takeuchi and everyone else who owns the rights to Sailor Moon – people who do not include me. Oh, how I lament the tragedy!
> 
> Author’s Note: hello and welcome to the sequel of Lunar Expedition, the story of Silver Millennium. Like it’s predecessor, SM is going to be pretty long so I hope you’re ready for a huge story.
> 
> I’ve been away for a long time so my desire to write a story I’ve been dreaming of for ten years has now become twenty years. So many people have written encouraging messages and left kind likes/kudos, so thank you! I hope you enjoy this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. The prologue was written about ten years ago but the rest of the story will be written in 2020 (I hope). Stay inside, stay safe, and enjoy what a lot more time on my hands has allowed me to write for all of you, hopefully being able to finish this story I have wanted so long to tell!
> 
> Also, you probably want to read LE before this one, although the chapters without Chibi Usa will be standalone. Enjoy!

Night blooming jasmine wafted in through the half-open doors, sending slivers of delicious perfume to all the corners of the room. The small, cozy lights hanging overhead offered a semi-lighted ambience to the bed raised on a dais in the center of the room. White and silver curtains shadowed the lone occupant of the bed, stretching out like loving hands over her legs.

The pain was excruciating. Queen Night Serenity had draped herself over a sea of pillows, her eyes tearing up at the sudden agonizing pain in her back. She lifted a hand to her swollen belly and stroked it, trying to soothe the insistent kicks to her kidneys. Part of her wondered if she was being punished for something she’d done in a previous life. She tilted her head back and struggled to find her inner peace.

“Having some trouble?” an amused voice said over her head. Night opened one eye and glared.

“I hate you,” she said. “You’re not pregnant. Go away.”

“You look like an overturned turtle,” Sailor Moon laughed, eyes sparkling mischievously as she perched by her sister’s head. “They’ll have to carve that child out of your belly. It is way too big for you to carry around anymore.” Even though her words were biting, her gloved fingers were gentle as she smoothed back the sweaty hair at Night’s temple.

“Moon,” Night whispered, “Normally, I don’t mind listening to you make fun of me. But I really don’t have the patience for this right now. Can’t you annoy someone else?”

“Can’t, Venus is securing the perimeter and Jupiter is prepping the army before we seal ourselves inside the palace. The priests have determined that you’re having this baby in the next fortnight. You’re stuck with us until she pops out,” Sailor Moon said with a grin, her fingers dancing along Night’s neck and over her shoulder. “Have you decided on a name yet?”

“I already have a name for her,” Night said, forcing herself up on her elbows to glare at her sister. “Just because you won’t accept the one I picked doesn’t mean I have to listen to your list of possibilities.”

“Lady just seems so unimaginative,” Sailor Moon whined, gently pushing Night back into a restful position, tucking pillows behind her head. Night let herself be manhandled - Sailor Moon so rarely had an opportunity to take care of someone. “You have the opportunity to name the girl something new and exciting. We’ve already had two “Ladies” in our ancestry.”

“What are you talking about? We only had the one,” Night said without thinking. When Sailor Moon didn’t say anything, Night’s face heated up. “Ah, two.” Her eyes flickered to her sister and then quickly away. “I’m sorry. I forgot.”

“I know,” Sailor Moon said, patting her cheek a little harder than she needed to. “It’s just such a boring name.”

“It was _your_ name,” Night said, frowning.

“ _Was_ being the important word, and it was still boring,” Sailor Moon said with a grin that appeared and disappeared just as quickly. “Anyway, you can’t call her by that cursed name. You’ll make her into a Senshi when I die otherwise!”

“Shut up,” Night said, sinking back into the bed. “I like Lady.”

“I’ll call her something else behind your back until she thinks my name is the real one and yours is the fake,” Sailor Moon said, dancing out of Night’s reach as her sister tried to pinch her thigh. “I’ll make it something good and embarrassing. You just watch people get confused about us calling her different things; and I’ll spoil her rotten so she always thinks I’m the right one.”

“Just go make sure Venus is done,” Night said as she chucked a pillow at her sister’s head. True to her Senshi training, Moon dodged with a laugh and a half prance out the door. Night waited a moment longer to make sure she was really gone before stretching out on the bed again, closing her eyes. Her hand gently stroked her belly, a little annoyed that the baby had stopped kicking at Sailor Moon’s voice. She’d always had that calming effect on the baby, uttering just a few arrogant words and soothing all those painful kicks. She hoped it didn’t mean the child would turn out just like her sister. She had enough problems without another hot tempered princess dashing around her in circles.

…

Night stuffed a pillow against her mouth and screamed into it, her toes curling around the bedsheets as she tried to muffle the sound. As if from thin air, a gentle gloved hand pulled the pillow from her face and smoothed the hair off of her forehead. Venus smiled like pure sunlight, gently taking Night’s trembling hands in her own. “It’s alright. You can scream.”

“Please do! It’s not like that pillow was cutting off the sound anyway,” Moon said cheerfully tugging on Night’s toes. Venus, still smiling, smacked Moon with the pillow, aiming directly to the face. Moon made a keening sound as she flopped over backwards onto the ground. “Ow,” she said, drawing out the sound into a whine. “V, why are you so mean to me?”

“Your sister is going through agonizing pain; the least you can do is quit poking fun at her,” Venus said, gently smoothing back Night’s hair again. Night wanted to feel smug about her sister getting beaten up by one of her own Senshi but a spasm of pain jerked her body nearly upright, heat shooting down her legs and back. A moment later, a cool, damp cloth wiped the sweat from her face and Night opened one eye to stare weakly back at Venus. “It’ll be all right, you’ll be all right. We’re here with you.”

Night nodded weakly and clung to Venus’s hand, focusing all of her pain and anguish into that one spot. She focused on the firm grip Venus offered in return, the long fingers that gently stroked her forehead, the soft murmur of her voice. She remained suspended in a haze of pain and sensation, the strain making everything strange around her. Her vision seemed to fade around the edges so that colors stood out only in front of her. Sounds and feeling heightened so that she heard when the door at the end of the hall scraped open quietly and the quick, light steps of a visitor approached before Venus and Moon did. Jupiter saluted them at the door and beckoned for Moon to come closer. With one final tweak of her toes, Moon stood and went over to Jupiter, their heads coming together as they spoke softly. Venus patted her hand, a reassuring smile lighting her lovely face.

The world faded around the edges at that point. She knew that time was passing, that Jupiter came and spoke with Moon and Venus, that Venus occasionally left and returned, that Moon was sometimes by her feet, then by her side, then brushing away the damp hair on her forehead, then rubbing soothing circles on her swollen belly. Sound faded next, the dull thumping of her own heart drowning out any other sound. Even surrounded by her Senshi, she felt alone.

She drifted on a haze of pain and delirium. One moment she saw Moon leaning over her, whispering soothing words like cool water against her flushed cheeks. The next moment she saw her mother, willowy and swaying, like a mirage. In the next moment, she recalled her mother’s death and thought she must have been going crazy. In the next moment, she saw her Mau advisor, a large orange cat with bright green eyes and a wicked sense of humor. Except she too had died long ago, even before her mother had passed on. Moon was at her side again except she was not a Senshi, but her sister once more, her long flowing gown curved around her body like a glove.

She could barely tell what was real and what wasn’t. Venus’s soothing hands on her face felt real but so did the faint tickle of her mother’s hair on her feet. Was she dying? The pain made her think she was.

The youma seemed to have walked directly out of her dreaming. One moment Night’s eyes were closed and the world spun in a kaleidoscope of reds and purples, then she lifted her heavy eyelids to find him standing at the foot of her bed. For all of the danger she’d been warned about as a girl and the scars that the Senshi had borne over the years, Night had never seen a youma herself. Part of her had secretly thought that they did not exist - that they were, rather, an overgrown bedtime story stuffed with unspeakable terrors, meant to keep her constantly under watch. She could not even imagine what such a terrifying monster could look like, capable of destroying entire cities and seducing unsuspecting young princesses…

This one, although it looked like nothing she had ever imagined, was unmistakably a youma and nothing less. It had dark purple hair on one side of his head which dipped down his shoulder like a cloak, very pretty. The other side of his head was bald and the bare, pointed ear sported five gleaming rings. In her delirium, she thought the rings looked like sea shells. He wore black armor over his torso and thighs, a loincloth over his hips, and a gleaming dagger on his loose belt. Around his neck hung the most curious necklace Night had ever seen, with large spherical stones on a gleaming chain. Even as she wondered what the spheres were, dread built in her belly and made her breathing come in sharp, quick gasps. She _didn’t_ want to know, she decided. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to know.

He allowed her to observe him, smiling faintly at whatever expression she must have worn. He had jagged, pointed teeth.

She must have made a sound because in the next moment, Moon was on his back, her eyes filled with a fury Night had never seen before. Venus leapt to her leader’s side, her Venus chain extended and gleaming in her hands. Night watched them from a far distance, as if a veil were covering her eyes, her fingers clenched around the bedsheets as Moon and Venus wrestled the youma out of her room. She waited, tried to make sense of what had happened, failed to make a connection. The pain redoubled and she gasped, clutching her belly as it rippled against her hands. She cried out for her sister. She cried out for her mother. No one came.

Some distant part of her could vaguely make out the clash of battle, with shouted orders and one hair-raising scream, but then the threads of comprehension vanished completely and Night no longer cared what was real. She panted, she writhed, she finally screamed her own anguish into the silence. The child burned inside her and she could find no release for the pain. Time crawled by and no one came for so long. She didn’t know if she could stay in that place of pain and pressure for much longer. Something inside of her would snap and she would break into a thousand pieces in that world of pain.

A trembling, wet hand touched her sweaty brow and she opened her eyes. Moon smiled gently, blood caked to her chin and ear. A long gash from her left breast down to her right hip looked like a crimson sash. “Are you alright?” she said softly. Night stared up at her and nodded.

“She’s already in labor,” Venus said, her voice sounding garbled and far away. When Night turned her head to look, she saw that Venus had one blood-soaked hand covering her left eye but even with that shield, Night could see the penetrating gash beneath her fingers. Her eye was gone. “We need to help her. She doesn’t have long.”

Moon would have cursed before. All her life, Night remembered that Moon typically complained about whatever unfairness befell her and then moved on. It helped her cope, she’d said once with a wicked grin. “If I keep the anger inside, it never goes away.” Night waited for the angry words but Moon merely narrowed her eyes and smiled gently. “Tell me what to do,” she said. Venus moved her free hand out and grasped Moon’s shoulder, squeezing. Moon shook her off.

“Take off your gloves,” Venus said.

“Oh baby,” Moon said stoically. Venus gave her a watery almost-smile. “What else?”

“Wash your hands and we’ll go from there. Night,” she turned to the bed, her eyebrows pinched together in worry. “Can you hear me? Are you still with us?”

Night tired to nod but her head no longer felt as if it were attached to her neck. Venus smiled at her and gently stroked her brow with a steady hand. “We are here.”

Some distant part of her mind noted that Jupiter was not there, that she had not so much as stuck her head through the door. Had the youma been real? Or was he just another illusion, like her mother? She tried to make sense of it, struggled to come back to reality. She watched Moon lean over and kiss the corner of Venus’s mouth. Venus stared at her, stunned by the open affection. Night smiled weakly. Was this an illusion too? Was this real?

“I love you,” Moon whispered in a voice Night had not heard her use in a long time. She hesitated, then wrapped both of her blood-soaked arms around Venus’s waist and buried her face in the long, shimmering blond hair at her throat. Moon spoke to her in a ragged gasp, her shoulders trembling. “Don’t be frightened love, I’ll only be gone for a moment. I’ll wash my hands faster than your beautiful light beam, I swear. Don’t open the door for anyone. Ask me anything. Ask me my favorite position, what color my toenails are, ask me anything and make sure its me. I’ll be back, I swear it. I love you.” She gently pushed Venus away and bent over Night, rubbing wet lips on her sister’s eyebrow and then she was gone. Venus secured the door after her, leaning her forehead for a moment against it before she came back. Night’s vision faded around the edges and finally dimmed to nothing. She could vaguely sense her body jerking with every contraction, a stab of pain so white hot it was her entire world.

When she came back to herself, Moon was back and her bare hands were bloody again. Night squinted at her, panting with the effort of keeping her in focus. Venus mopped her forehead, her other hand caressing her neck with cool, clean fingers. When Night’s head lolled back to look at her, she saw that a piece of Venus’s golden skirt had been torn off and was used as a makeshift patch over her ruined eye, hiding most of the jagged skin underneath. Inexplicably, Night thought that she was fiercely beautiful, even without her eye, and she began to cry.

Venus smiled and soothed her gently, both of her bare hands caressing her face. She was speaking to her but Night couldn’t hear a thing but her own pounding heart. Moon leaned over her and said something else - urgent, quick, controlled. Night smiled weakly.

Moon and Venus exchanged a look and then moved, shifting Night’s legs and body, manipulating her and using their hands to communicate. Her body understood and she let instinct take over, her screams just more background noise to her racing heart. She let them hold her life in their hands, let them take everything away from her.

And then it was over. The pain and the pressure subsided abruptly and the sound returned tenfold. A child cried somewhere nearby, screaming so loudly that she wondered if she was the one screaming. She looked down, confused and curious. Moon huddled at her feet clutching a little bundle wrapped in the silver-blue blanket of Night’s youth. It had belonged to their mother, and her mother before that. Venus smiled through her tears, her fingers gently caressing the child.

“What will you name her?” Venus asked, grinning down at Night. Moon carefully moved towards her and even more gently placed the child on her chest. Night stared down into the most beautiful face she had ever seen.

A tiny button nose twitched as tiny lips slowed and stilled, as if sensing her. The eyes were closed like a mole’s and tufts of soft wispy blond hair curled around tiny ears. A golden crescent mark shimmered like a wet spot on her forehead as the little creature reached for her with tiny fingers. Night could feel herself pulled in to this little sun’s orbit, could feel her heart leave her own body and curl into this tiny being. It was like a quiet invasion and abduction, all her love sucked away in an instant, but she didn’t want it back.

“Lady would be a fine name,” Moon said softly. Night looked up and was stunned by the force of raw emotion and love reflected back at her in Moon’s eyes. Even though she had not thought it in years, had even forgotten that once, they had been twins - Night felt as if she were not looking at someone else but rather that she was looking at herself. Moon was Night and Night was Moon - an endless cycle of completion and love. They smiled at the same time, like when they had been little girls and played the mirror game. Night looked down at her child and her smile grew.

“Neo,” she whispered. “Her name is Neo.”


	2. The Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to the sequel of Lunar Expedition (LE), the story of Silver Millennium (SM). Like its predecessor, SM is going to be pretty long so I hope you’re ready for a huge story.
> 
> Thank you so much for all of the kind words! I was shy to write again after such a long time but all of the reviews and encouragement has been so welcoming, I feel like I’m right back in the old days. I know the world is a scary, tough place right now. Thank you for helping to bring an escape for all of us for a little while.

Usagi bit her nail as she watched the television set without seeing it. The reality of the past few days was still sinking in, distracting her in a way that nothing else had quite managed to. She’d returned home to find her mother nearly frantic with panic and worry. Naru spent the night with her, speaking softly into the early hours of the morning. The freedom to speak about herself was still fresh, still exhilarating as Naru asked her questions she had never thought someone would ask her. How long had she been Sailor Moon? Why her? How long had Usagi kept it a secret from her? Had she ever been in a terrible fight where she had killed someone? Did Mamoru know? Did anyone else know? How had she come to be a princess in the first place? Did she remember anything from her past life?

It had never seemed enchanting to her before, her past. On the contrary, as a young girl before she became Sailor Moon, the thought of being a beautiful, romantic princess from a far away land had seemed wonderful and special. When she found out that it was not a fantasy but a reality, the magic of it all dissipated. She remembered what it was like to be a princess, the restrictiveness of her decisions and movements, the expectations of her abilities and powers, the limitations on her choices for a suitable partner. For a long time, all she could focus on, when she bothered to think about her previous life, was that Endymion was forbidden to her.

That had been too painful to bear, but it was also just the tipping point of a lifetime of other constraints. Being a princess meant living in a glass cage, where she looked and felt free, but was in no way free. It felt strange to lie under her comforter with Naru, their arms intertwined, their voices hushed, hot breath on their faces as they whispered to each other with a flashlight beneath them to light their faces. It was difficult to remember all of that constraint when she felt warm and safe now. She told Naru a little bit, about her tumultuous birth during a youma attack, the murder of her Aunt Venus when she had been young, the first Sailor Moon that Usagi had ever heard of but never met—who no one knew about now—and the people, endless people, who always wanted something.

“Is she…Minako?” Naru asked when Usagi spoke of Sailor Venus, her twisted expression an attempt to understand the complicated narrative that Usagi wove for her. The memories were patchy and far away, although clearer now for reasons she couldn’t fathom. Still, there were so many people that Naru had never and would never meet. They only existed now in Usagi’s memory, a distant echo of the powerful people they had once been. “Is she that much older than you are…were?”

“Sailor V was Minako’s aunt,” she explained softly. “Senshi are…hereditary, but they are a broken-off branch. Senshi aren’t meant to have children. They’re meant to fight and protect their siblings, who rule their planets, or their stars, sometimes. It depends on how powerful they are. Our solar system chose Earth as its center, since Earth has the most inhabitants and life is easy to sustain here. In the other planets, life is more difficult to sustain and the population is much smaller. They had to use technology to stay alive and to travel around, but for Earth…life is effortless. That’s why other planets protect Earth, and the moon used to be the gate to Earth.”

“It’s so cool that you remember all of this,” Naru whispered, grinning at her in the dark. The flashlight lit up her face in an odd way, casting long shadows over her eyes and twisting her expressions. When Naru had first asked questions, her expression had remained guarded and doubtful of Usagi’s claims and descriptions. Now, however, she was enthralled by the stories, eager to hear all that Usagi had to remember. And she remembered a great deal, far more than she had realized. All of the Senshi had their own mix of memories and it seemed more painful than fun to recount those memories.

“It’s not something I’m happy to know,” Usagi admitted softly. “I remember things that no one else does. Probably, no one else remembers that far back, our history was very long. My family isn’t originally from the moon.”

“They’re not?” Naru said, scooting closer and lacing their fingers together as she listened. Usagi smiled and squeezed her hand. It felt strange to talk so freely with Naru, finally. When she had become Sailor Moon, she had been so proud, she could barely keep her mouth shut about it. When she had found out she was Princess Serenity…not just found out, felt it, remembered it, all of the excitement of that revelation had evaporated. Being the princess wasn’t something she had actually wanted, now that she had it. Being the princess meant responsibility, sacrifice, people dying to protect her, strength when she wanted nothing more than to hide and cry…still, there was a strange appeal to confiding in Naru.

“No,” she said. “We’re from another galaxy, a distant one. It’s called the Shining Galaxy, the birth place of the Silver Crystal. I don’t know much about it, just that we brought a lot of change wit us. We were running away from…something. It’s hard to remember now, but we took the other three Senshi with us–Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune–so that they could guard us from outer space. They were our personal guard in the other galaxy but when we got to our solar system, the planets closer to the sun vowed loyalty to us too and became the new guard, the Inner Guard. Since our guard was more powerful and able to fight outside threats, they became the Outer Guard.”

She licked her lips, remembering. “When we came here, to this galaxy, it was…quiet. Peaceful. Brand new in so many ways. It was exciting to feel safe, finally, and to start life without the complications of a really dense society somewhere else. We weren’t alone anymore, for the first time in a long time.”

“You talk differently when you talk about back then,” Naru said, shivering slightly. “Your voice changes…you say things in a different way, use different words. It’s weird.” She squeezed Usagi’s hand. “Not in a bad way. It just doesn’t sound like you.”

“I’m sorry,” Usagi said with a startled laugh. Did she? She hadn’t thought she could do that…but if Naru said it than it must have been true.

“Don’t be sorry,” Naru said. “It just…it’s a different you. When you talk like that, you’re someone different.”

“I was someone different,” Usagi said softly. “Things were very different for me then. I knew more things. It scares me when I remember things I didn’t know I had forgotten.”

“What was it like?” Naru said. Her tone was purposefully casual. The eagerness in her eyes came through, though, and Usagi knew that Naru was dying from curiosity. Something in Usagi’s face must have been showing something she hadn’t planned to share because Naru squeezed her hand reassuringly.

Usagi closed her eyes and frowned slightly. How to describe everything she knew and remembered to someone who had no basis for comparison? The Moon Kingdom had been a vast, magical place, even in her own memory. A warm, gentle, peaceful place with parties every night, with joy and laughter…and pain. So much pain that no one else saw, no one else had to experience but her and the other Senshi. Usagi had never lacked the words to describe an experience to Naru before because they had always shared so much of their lives and experiences. Being Sailor Moon had put a definite wedge between them, creating a difference that had never been quite bridged, but Naru was her best friend. She loved her fiercely and wanted, very badly, for her to understand what it had been like. If no one else could, Naru would.

“It was a beautiful place,” she said. “Beautiful and sad. There was…an artificiality to the moon. Earth is different. The life on Earth, it’s natural, abundant…plants and animals grow here the way they never could on the moon. We had a dome to sustain atmosphere there, artificial gardens and water running throughout to create a sort of oasis in the desert of the moon, but it was nothing like it is here.

“There were vast fields of flowers there, and buildings with many rooms. The hallways had paintings, beautiful images from around the galaxy, even beyond our galaxy to remind us of where we came from. Far off places that no one who saw them remembered or had ever seen before. There were portraits of our ancestors, a shrine for the Sailor Moons of the past. Becoming a Senshi cut you off from your family, it made you something else, so when you died you had to go somewhere different. Your rank changed, you became a representative of your kingdom, equal to your queen…it didn’t always work out.”

She didn’t know all of the details. Her mother had had a twin once, an ancient Sailor Moon. Something had gone wrong. Something her Aunt V had never forgiven herself for, not even the day she died.

“There were enormous flying ships that flew from the moon to other planets. The Senshi, when they had trained for many years, could teleport from place to place. We couldn’t work out how to use that technology for big groups of people so most people used ships the size of palaces. The smaller ones were cargo ships. They looked like comets against the night sky.” She opened her eyes, seeing for a moment, the sky as it had been back then. Brilliant and bright, stars everywhere, the light of the blue Earth before her. She could almost touch it…she could almost feel herself there. The warm breeze of Earth, smelling of the sea and full of life. She shuddered slightly at the memory.

“What happened there?” Naru whispered softly. Usagi reached up to wipe at her eyes, smiling a little.

“There was a terrible battle,” she said. “No one survived. Not even me.”

* * *

Usagi did not go to school the next day. She was supposed to. She had put on her uniform, rolled up her long socks and adjusted her hair three times, followed Naru all the way to the front gates before a nagging, deep need stopped her. She put her hand against the gate for a long moment, staring in at the distracted faces of her classmates. It could have been any other day, except for the tension in the air. It was difficult to ignore all of the events of the past few days but the students seemed determined to return to normal.

A group of their friends stood off to one side, observing them curiously as Naru looked back for her. “I can’t go today,” Usagi said, barely able to speak around the dread in her throat. “I need to go.”

“Are you okay?” Naru said, lowering her voice as she returned to her side. “Is something…going on? Secret stuff?”

“No,” Usagi said, her voice still tight. “I just…I have to see Mamoru. I can’t be here right now. I’m sorry.” Without another word, she turned and ran, her eyes clenched against pain she didn’t know what to do with.

Naru called after her but Usagi didn’t wait, running as fast as she could until her lungs were burning, and still she ran. She knew that Mamoru would be heading towards the university right now and the terror of not finding him there, that he would be somewhere unreachable, seized her heart and wouldn’t let go. She ran towards his apartment and nearly sobbed in relief when she saw him exiting the front doors. He stopped when he saw her and then immediately opened his arms for her to crash into him. She did sob when she was there, clutching at him and holding on tightly as she cried.

“Usako, it’s okay,” Mamoru said to her, holding her close as she began to tremble. He kissed the top of her head and held her tightly, soothing one hand up and down her back. “It’s okay, I’m right here. I’m safe. It’s okay.”

It took a long time for Usagi to calm down, more than she wanted to admit, but by the time she’d calmed down, Mamoru had walked her to the park and sat down with her, running his hands gently up and down her back to soothe her. She looked around slowly, aware that other people were watching and whispering about them. She bit her lip and looked back up at him. Mamoru hated public displays of affection and often became uncomfortable when she would grab him or try to kiss him in public. Even holding his arm had been a bit of a stretch, where he would glance around and remain slightly tense. Now though, he had eyes only for her, his gaze warm and kind as he smiled at her.

“What’s wrong?” he said gently. “You should be in class.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you have to go, you have class too. I just…” she stopped, biting her lip. The rush of anxiety and fear overwhelmed her again and wordlessly, she pressed her face into his chest and held on. He hugged her even as she began to shake, resting his face against her hair for a long moment. “I was so afraid you would be gone.”

“I know,” he said. “I’m here, I didn’t go anywhere.”

“I thought someone took you, or something happened,” Usagi said, tears in her eyes again. “I don’t want to live like this, I don’t want to always worry that something’s happened to you. Why does this always have to happen? Why can’t everyone just…leave us alone?”

“Because we are responsible for them,” Mamoru said, a bit sadly. Usagi’s lips twisted down in an angry scowl but she froze when Mamoru lifted her chin and kissed her. It felt like a tiny spark of light as she closed her eyes and melted against him. When he drew back, she felt calmer, lighter. Opening her eyes, she stared at him with tear-thick lashes as he smiled down at her. “We’re always going to be in danger. That’s just how it is for us. We need to be more proactive about it, fight back. Protect each other.”

Usagi nodded slowly, resting her cheek against his shoulder. She felt better just from being close to him and the pressure on her chest eased. Opening her eyes, she reached out for his hands and entwined their fingers. Mamoru wasn’t looking at her anymore, staring off into the trees with a focused expression on his face. She stared at him, really looking at him. He looked tired, bags under his eyes and a slight tightness around the corners of his mouth. When had he begun to look so stressed? Had she not been paying attention or was this something new?

“What’s wrong?” she said.

“Nothing,” Mamoru said. It was a reflex. He glanced back at her and grimaced. “I haven’t been sleeping well. Nightmares.”

“About…Silver Millennium?” Usagi asked softly.

“About Crystal Tokyo, actually,” Mamoru admitted. “I keep seeing Chibi Usa appearing and disappearing. Begging me to help but I’m trapped somewhere. Seeing that youma, either killing her or helping her.”

“I wonder what that means,” Usagi murmured, resting her head on his shoulder. For some reason, knowing he wasn’t agonizing over something that had happened in their past made her feel better. It meant that their path forward to the future wasn’t help back by regrets. Or at least not for her. She didn’t regret what had happened in their past lives. They did the best they could with the restraints of their stations and the people that were around them. Being upset about what happened changed nothing in the end.

“I was also worried about whatever is happening in the American compound,” Mamoru admitted. “If those people are really my parents, and they were exposed to the Silver Crystal enough time to expand their life spans, it means that they were in hiding somewhere. I never saw them when we were in Elysium.”

“Isn’t Elysium a temple?” Usagi said. Her memory of Elysium in particular was patchy, Mamoru’s nearly perfect. They had talked about it many times and discovered that she had remembered things wrong about that place. It might have been some kind of energy guarding it from memory. It was mysterious in so many ways that Usagi didn’t understand, even though she was starting to. Something was changing and she didn’t like it.

“Yes, it’s a temple, I’m surprised you remember that,” Mamoru admitted. “Elysium is the palace but it was originally designed as a temple to worship the sun. When the Golden Crystal was produced from my family’s bloodline, everyone assumed it was a manifestation of the sun’s power instead of the Earth’s. If Elysium rejected them or if they didn’t stay there, it could mean they’re not really them.”

“Or it could mean staying there was too painful,” Usagi said. Mamoru’s face twitched. He stayed still for another moment before he turned to face her, resting his face in her hair. Against her head, he grunted.

“Usako, what do I do? I want to stay here with you, protect you. But…I want to know. If it’s really them….”

Usagi reached around to hug him, squeezing her eyes shut. Family was such a difficult subject for Mamoru. He never spoke of his parents, or the accident that killed them. He sometimes spoke of the orphanage where he grew up, his friends like Kazuo, but often in the present tense.

“You have to go to them,” she admitted. Mamoru straightened up but she squeezed him tighter. “Listen, I know you want to argue with me. I know we talked about this and how you should stay with me because it’s safer, but nowhere is safe. Even this peace is temporary. While we still can, you need to go, with protection, and see if they’re real.”

“Are you sure?” he whispered. “I hate to leave you alone. I know how much you hate it.”

“Sometimes, we have to be alone,” she said. “I need to get stronger. You said it yourself, we can’t be defensive anymore. We need to take control of our destiny or we’re doomed to follow our fate.”

“Are you sure?” he said again, cradling her face. “I don’t know how long we’ll be apart.”

“I lost you for over a thousand years,” Usagi said, laughing as she cried. “A little while apart is nothing if I know we’re going to be together for the rest of our lives.” She moved up to kiss him, surprising them both. “Just be careful.”

“Always,” Mamoru smiled. “Should I call the girls?”

“I will, just wait a minute,” she said. Standing, she walked a little away to compose herself and then called each of the Senshi. It felt like their normal lives were miles away. How many times had she sunk into her present, forgetting everything that came before, only to have her world shaken over again by something she couldn’t foresee or control? If Chibi Usa was any hint about the future, it sounded like the fighting would never end.

Usagi sat with Mamoru until they came, holding each other and not speaking as they watched the trees swaying in the wind. Knowing they had all the time in the world to be together didn’t lessen the feeling of time running out for them. Usagi didn’t want to think this would be the end for them, she just couldn’t. Mamoru’s prophetic dreams had been wrong before but they’d almost always been right. She didn’t want to think that their actions could lead to the disappearance of their perfect future in Crystal Tokyo.

The Senshi came into the park, one at a time, their expressions glum. Usagi remembered belatedly that there was a quiz this morning. Minako and Makoto wore their school uniforms but Ami came dressed in a pale blue sundress and didn’t wear her reading glasses. Had she…skipped school? With a start, Usagi realized she hadn’t checked in with any of them after the fighting. Were they okay?

Mamoru kissed the top of her head, bringing her back to the present. Taking a deep breath, Usagi focused on what had to be done. There wasn’t time for everything she wanted to do.

“Mamoru needs to go to America, to see his parents,” Usagi explained. “I need to send at least two of you with him to keep him safe.”

“I can travel faster alone,” Mamoru said.

“I’m not going to be able to sleep if I have to watch you board a plane alone again,” Usagi admitted. That got him to be quiet again. “I know it’s a lot to ask but I don’t think we have time to stay hidden anymore. Ami said it last night, we can’t just be defensive. We need to be proactive.”

“You’ve learned a lot, Usagi,” Luna said, bowing her head. “I’m glad.”

“I’ll go,” Minako said. “As the leader of the Senshi, I can represent us and coordinate. And I know English fluently. Besides, I don’t have anything here to hold me. My parents won’t care if I’m gone and I don’t have any friends other than all of you.” Rei glared at her but said nothing. “It’s true and we all know it. My disappearance isn’t going to be felt the way Usagi’s would be.”

“By that logic, I should go too,” Rei said. “My English isn’t the best but you’re going to need firepower.”

“It should be me,” Ami interrupted. “I put up the barrier so I can diagnose what’s wrong from there. Michiru and Setsuna have been helping but my presence there can be more directly helpful.”

“It has to be me,” Makoto said quietly. This got them all to look at her. Makoto’s face was red, her eyes downcast, her hands shaking. Usagi immediately went to hug her but Makoto waved her off. “No, I can do this.”

“But…the plane,” Usagi said.

“No time for stupid phobias,” Makoto said with a sharp laugh. Reaching up a trembling hand, she wiped at her face. “Rei and Ami need to stick around for exactly what they just said: if the barrier is fucked, Usagi’s going to need Ami right there. And Rei can do her psychic thing to sense when enemies are coming. Useless if they’re in America. You’re right, Rei. They need your firepower.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m strong but I can’t help with the barrier or foretelling when something dangerous is going to fuck with us. Minako’s the boss and I’m the muscle. Everyone’ll leave Mamoru alone.”

“She’s right,” Ami said softly. “But Makoto…the plane. It’s going to be a very long flight and I can’t guarantee it’ll be comfortable. With the barrier, there have been so many disruptions to the magnetic field and planes have reported all kinds of–,”

“Fuck, don’t tell me that!” Makoto said, her face going pale. “It’s hard enough! But I have to do it. Just tell me when we have to do it.”

“Tomorrow,” Artemis said.

“Why tomorrow?” Usagi said, startled.

Artemis and Luna exchanged glances before Artemis sighed. “Because of what Ami just said. Various airports are discussing closing international and national travel. Private channels are talking about closing tomorrow. It has to be now.”

“Oh god,” Makoto groaned, her hands clenching and unclenching.

“We can do this,” Minako said, moving to hug her tightly. “We’ll go now. I know it’s not ideal but there’s no time like the present, right?”

“Right,” Makoto said, sounding queasy.

“Right,” Mamoru said, smiling. “And thank you for coming with me. I’m not…eager to get on a plane either.”

“Just don’t get mind controlled again,” Makoto said. “Or I’ll have to hit you!”

Ami laughed, surprising all of them. Then they all laughed. What more was there to do but laugh? It was a devastating situation and the joke wasn’t funny. It had been too recent, too horrible, but if they didn’t laugh Usagi was going to start crying and maybe never stop. Even now she was struggling not to burst into uncontrollable, terrified sobbing.

“Stop, you’re going to make her cry,” Rei said impatiently. “It’s all going to be okay so just get going. We’ve got things covered here.” She gave Minako a long, intense look before she walked purposefully away from them. Usagi sniffled (she’d teared up only a little) and watched Minako sigh and follow her.

Usagi opened her mouth to ask where they were going when she was hit with an odd sense of vertigo all at once. Watching Minako walking away, in the dappled sunlight of the familiar park, faded into Sailor Venus bathed in the vibrant, cold light of the moon with a sea of stars behind her. Rei was Sailor Mars in this vision, her left arm in a sling, blood dripping from both legs as Sailor Venus chased after her.

“M-M-Mars! M-M-Mars!” Venus’s voice was alien too, timid and terrified in a way Minako never was.

Nausea came over her as she swayed, Mamoru’s arms a painful vice and then…nothing. The leaves overhead were the only flashes of color and light, Rei was walking away slowly and Minako followed with no urgency. 

What was that? Usagi looked up at Mamoru, who was reassuring in his smile. He hadn’t seen what she’d seen. Or had he?

“What was that about?” Makoto asked Ami. Ami gave her an odd look, reaching down to pick up Luna to pet over her ears. It was clear they were all tense and stressed.

“You don’t remember?” Ami asked.

“Remember what?”

“It’s…they’re just going to talk, I’ll tell you later,” Ami said, nodding to Usagi and Mamoru. “I’ll be back, I need to make the arrangements for you. Makoto, if you come with me I’ll tell you…what I know about that.”

The two walked away with Artemis following them, Ami’s voice low.

“It’s alright,” Mamoru said to Usagi when they were alone. “That’s been happening to me all day.” She looked down at his bare hand touching her’s. The psychometry. Had he felt what she felt, seen what she saw? But she’d never had that before. He had flashes of the past, almost like a flashback where he relived a moment or a feeling. She had always been the one blocked from seeing or experiencing any of her past. “It’s okay. It happened a long time ago. You don’t have to feel that way anymore.”

A wave of love overcome her as she turned to hide against his chest, squeezing him in a tight hug. “What’s happening?” she whispered.

“We’re remembering,” he said into her hair, squeezing her tight. “Everything is happening faster now. Whatever your mother used to suppress the memories of the Earth people after Beryl is lifting from us too. We’re going to remember more and more as whatever she did faded.”

“How do you know?” Usagi asked, lifting her head to stare at him.

“I…had a nightmare about it,” Mamoru said uncomfortably. “I didn’t want to bring it up…I’m sorry.” He squeezed her. Usagi opened her mouth, to be hurt, to yell at him about hiding things from her, but she closed her mouth and simply hugged him. They just didn’t have time…he knew that better than she did. No time for feelings, or fears, or choices they couldn’t go back to change.

“Call me every day,” she whispered. “And don’t hide these things from me. I can take it. I want to be there for you the way you are for me.”

He squeezed her tighter. “You are,” he whispered. “You’re stronger than me. I think we’ve proven that plenty of times.” He grinned and leaned down, kissing her fast. Too fast for her to respond. Usagi shivered a little, smiling back. “Just remember, when this is all over, it’s going to be you and me. We’re going to have our whole lives together. Married. Happy. We’ll get through all of this together.”

“Together,” she repeated quietly, smiling up at him.

* * *

Some way from Usagi and Mamoru, Rei led Minako to the edge of the lake. It wasn’t out of the way completely but there was a cluster of trees and some hedges that obscured them from the others. Rei resisted the tuck her hair or straighten her uniform, all those small nervous habits she’d broken over the years so as to seem untouchable to those who gossiped about her in school.

Minako looked good in the new uniform. She looked good in everything she wore and seemed only to grow more beautiful each day. Her vision of Minako had never been obscured from her understanding of her past life: Venus had always been beautiful, unattainable and distant, even when she’d wanted her. Whatever was happening now with Minako felt somehow different than that. Usagi and Mamoru had their love that transcended lives and sense, but the way she felt about Minako was different than how Mars had felt for Venus so long ago.

“I know we didn’t talk about my leaving,” Minako admitted once they were alone. A cool breeze pulled their hair towards the lake, obstructing their faces. For a moment, Rei could pretend a thousand years had not passed and Venus leaving her behind was acceptable, didn’t touch her. She smiled and brushed her hair from her face, moving closer. Minako mattered. Minako leaving mattered.

“We don’t have a choice,” Rei said. “Usagi has to be protected and we both knew we would be separated eventually. Many times.” She took a breath. “The prince and princess always come first.”

Minako nodded but said nothing, watching her. They had never lacked topics to discuss but neither seemed willing to break the silence between them.

“Be careful,” Rei said. She turned to walk away.

“That’s it?” Minako asked. “That’s…” even as she stared at her, she only saw Mars’s disapproving face. Her scowl. Her disappointment. It didn’t matter, dammit. They were not who they had once been. Minako was better than that person. Moving forward, she reached for Rei’s hand.

Rei let her, body half turned away, hiding behind her hair and her cool exterior and everything that Minako wanted to burst through. Taking her other hand, she turned Rei to face her. “Tell me you’re going to miss me.”

“Arrogant,” Rei muttered. “I’m going to miss you.”

“And you’re going to think of me all the time,” Minako said, starting to smile.

“All the time is a lot,” Rei said, glaring at her.

“And when you go to bed, you’re going to send me a message that says good night,” Minako insisted, tugging her closer. Rei came to her right away, no resistance, and wrapped her arms firmly around her. Minako felt a small thrill at their proximity, her heart thudding as she felt Rei take charge, stroking her hair from her shoulder and gently kissing the side of her neck.

“When I go to bed, I’ll demand you tell me you’re alive,” Rei said, “and then insist you tell me everything that is happening there. And I’ll stop you from talking about the Senshi and the Earth monarchs and everything to do with that, and tell me what you were doing, that you ate like you’re supposed to, and where you’re going to take me on a date when we meet again.”

Minako swallowed tightly, resting her face against Rei’s neck. She couldn’t speak. Overcome with gratitude for this small proof that they weren’t who they once were, Venus and Mars, mortal enemies forced to work together: they were just Minako and Rei, tentative in this new, small love that was growing between them. Human. Fragile. Yet somehow strong.

“I’ll miss you,” Rei said quietly. “Come back to me.”

“If I can’t, come find me,” Minako whispered back, squeezing her. “Don’t forget about me.”

“As if it were possible to do that,” Rei said. She didn’t even look to see if the others saw them before leaning in to kiss her. Minako felt sensation burst in her chest, a warmth that felt endless flowing through her. It was like before but also better, with no guilt and no self-hatred or shame…just happiness. She and Rei hadn’t talked about it to the others because it was so new but it had never been something they were scared to say. They knew they would be loved, and somehow that knowledge, that bond, made everything else okay.

“Just keep Mamoru alive and not brainwashed,” Rei muttered.

“Don’t ask for miracles,” Minako said. “I’ll do my best.”


	3. Future, Past, Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the wonderful messages! I’m so excited that people not only remember this story, new fans are also finding the entire series. I hope that I can live up to the best expectations for this story as I write it. Each time I think that I should take a break or do something else, I remember that people are waiting for more chapters and it makes me happy. So while my wife plays Persona 5 Royal in the background, I’ll keep writing this story for all of you. Thank you, this chapter is definitely dedicated to the long-time fans and new fans alike who are so kind to cheer me on!

Despite the enormous size of the bunker they were staying in, Chibi Usa felt claustrophobic. They were permitted to go to the surface once every week for fresh air and supplies for the many scientists, soldiers, and other military personnel working (and hiding) there. Youma had infected the world like a plague. While the barrier kept the strongest and most destructive groups at bay, there were still the occasional dangerous individuals who snuck by and attacked humans whenever they came upon them. Stories of people drained of all their energy and left to die in their homes were often broadcasted into the control room where Michiru and Haruka had taken up their posts.

If she wasn’t outside or wandering the museum-like spaces where ancient Lunarian artifacts reminded her of how little she knew her family’s history, she was thinking of how trapped she felt. She’d grown up in the Crystal Palace for most of her life so she was accustomed to feeling small in very large places. Bran wasn’t handling it much better.

“For fuck’s sake, you’re powerful enough to kill anything out there,” he said for the tenth time as he walked beside her, ignoring the clear barriers between him and a set of make up jars lined in silver. He flicked them, watching them rock back and forth on their display stand. “And I can get us around just fine without being seen. Why do we have to stay in here?”

“Stop doing that,” Chibi Usa said, smacking at his hand. She was clumsy by nature and the sight of him touching things that looked so fragile was going to give her a heart attack. “Because if anything happens, the Senshi want to be there fast.”

“Don’t know why you need them when you’re powerful enough by yourself,” Bran muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and folding his ears back. He hadn’t looked her in the eye since he’d come back with Hotaru after the last fight.

“I’m not…that strong,” Chibi Usa said, grabbing his shoulder. He flinched, which made her let go immediately. Hurt suffused her when he shot her a surprised look.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” he said, quickly raising his hands.

“I’m not!” she insisted, getting more frustrated as angry tears pricked the corners of her eyes. “I can…I can make things worse, and I can use the Crystal, but I can’t just use it every time something threatens me. It hurts! And it’s exhausting! It can kill me if I’m really weak when I use it, and I’ve lost it more than once! No way am I going to treat it like it can just shield me!”

“Alright, stop screeching,” Bran said, his tail bristling.

“And it drains me of my energy,” Chibi Usa kept saying, angry tears making her voice more high pitched and strained. “I just want to be normal, for a little while, without anyone trying to kill me.”

“Alright, alright, I heard you!” Bran grunted, stopping short to glare at her. “I get it, I’m sorry, I’m just going fucking crazy in here!”

Chibi Usa opened her mouth, to be angry, to shout some more, but she was tired. She sighed, her shoulders drooping as she rubbed her face. She was still recovering after using the Silver Crystal, and the Golden Crystal that now pulsed like a reassuring warmth against her heart, and she was feeling more emotional than usual. Bran had been trying, really trying, to give her space, to be careful of her. She hated it but she also…appreciated it.

“You’re right,” she said at last. “I think you should be able to go outside with the others. Staying here just because I have to isn’t going to help anyone.”

“I mean, you could always sneak out with us,” Bran said, half grinning. Chibi Usa was already shaking her head.

“You don’t really get it,” she said quietly. “That attack you were part of?” She swallowed tightly. “That’s happened, countless times. Ever since I was little, groups of youma have tried to attack the palace: if there’s a rumor that I’m out, if one of the Senshi is away, an army will descend to try to catch me. They’ve caught me before. Hurt me. Hurt other people.” Bran was silent, a stunned expression on his face. She smiled and rubbed at her face. “Just trust me, okay? It was easier when no one knew who I was. Using the Crystal means I have a big fat target on my back. It’s why my mom is still in hiding and no one knows who she is or where she is.”

“Tokyo,” he said promptly. Then added, “But I see what I mean.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” Chibi Usa said, her voice growing hard. “Don’t tell anyone where she is.”

“I wouldn’t,” Bran said, rolling his eyes. When she kept glaring at him, he frowned and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I wouldn’t. It’s your mom. Who knows how the hell it would fuck us all over if I messed with the future like that? Besides, you saved my tail. I owe you.”

“Then don’t tell anyone where my mom is,” Chibi Usa said with a sigh, rubbing over her face. “I’ll talk to Haruka about you going out with your friends. You should be cooped up in here just because I am.”

Bran balanced on one foot and then the other. “Are you sure? I was just whining. I don’t really need to go.”

“Let off some steam, enjoy being out. And come back if you want.” She shrugged. “No one ever stays who isn’t my family. I won’t…” her throat tightened up. “I won’t be surprised if you don’t come back.”

“I will,” Bran insisted. “I’ll come back.”

“Sure,” Chibi Usa nodded and smiled as brightly as she could.

Bran lingered, his ears flicking irritably as he worried his lip under a fang. He seemed to think about it, think again, and eventually nodded. “I’m useless if I don’t stretch my legs. I’ll be back. Just wait for me, alright?”

“Alright,” Chibi Usa agreed. She kept herself smiling even as they spoke to Haruka, who glared at Bran the entire time, then they spoke to Bran’s youma friends (who glared at her the whole time), and then to the human security so that they wouldn’t try to fight the youma (and get killed the process). It took almost all afternoon before Bran finally went through the doors and swore, one more time, that he would come back. Chibi Usa’s face hurt from smiling but she was used to this part. She said goodbye to a lot of people this way, it just hadn’t happened for some time.

As the doors closed, a new kind of silence followed her. Hotaru had tried to spend more time with her but the moment that the other Senshi needed her, Chibi Usa was once again alone.

The question of what to do felt like a silly one: as a child, she’d invented any number of games to occupy herself, but she felt she was too old for most of them. In truth, she was too lonely to admit she had to play by herself. Or be by herself. She hated being alone, and the Golden Crystal sensed her sorrow if she thought about it too long, giving an uncomfortable lurch against her chest.

“Chibi Usa?” a soft, familiar voice drew her attention. For a moment, she was confused about where she was. Had Mama followed her somehow?

Queen Night Serenity approached her from behind a long pathway of paintings, her steps light. She’d clearly been waiting for Bran to leave to approach her. Nerves and discomfort made Chibi Usa wrap her arms around herself, taking a step back.

“What?” she mumbled, looking up and up…and up to meet her gaze. “What do you want?”

“I…” Night looked so much like her mother, and yet so different. There was a coldness to her, a grace and poise that was a bit unapproachable. Chibi Usa’s mother was warm, she cared about everyone she met, she cried when she heard about other people’s pain because it became her pain. This woman looked like her but she was more like a beautiful statue. Some of that polish faded when she knelt in front of Chibi Usa, offering her a weak smile. “I wished to speak with you, if you’ll allow me.”

“What do you want to talk about?” Chibi Usa asked, a hint of rebellion entering her tone, her jaw jutting out. “I’m still mad at you for what you did.”

“That’s fair,” Night agreed. “But you’re still my grandchild. My only grandchild. I would wish to meet you. I doubt we will have very much time to get to know one another before whatever will distracts us makes such a thing impossible.”

Guilt clawed in beside her grumpiness, reminding her of just that. Even when she thought she would have a lot of time in the past, it always dwindled quickly. She was never going to have this opportunity again, she was almost sure of it, and she didn’t want to pass up a chance to understand a little more about her own history.

“Fine, but I’m still mad at you,” Chibi Usa said. She glanced around awkwardly before she said, “So this warehouse has pieces from your kingdom?”

“The Silver Millennium, yes,” Night said, smiling as she too looked around, a longing in her voice drawing Chibi Usa’s gaze. “It’s startling to think that it is truly gone. Worse, that you do not even know about it. Or that the people of Earth have forgotten it. Except for those exposed to the Silver Crystal when I was Queen.”

“What do you mean?” Chibi Usa asked, frowning as she walked alongside Night. Night seemed to be reliving some sort of memory since she paused at certain tables and moved a few things, seeming to recall where they went in relation to each other. The scientists seemed to get very upset every time she wandered by their work stations (or very excited, depending on what they were looking for).

“No human would live as long as they have without exposure to the Silver Crystal,” Night explained. “King Sol and Queen Gaea would have longer lives due to their proximity to the Golden Crystal, back when it was under the control of King Sol, but even that would only be a few hundred years. Nothing like the thousand years they have been alive.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how many are still alive from that time, living somewhere else, remembering a history that is no longer true. Like seeing a star’s light, even after the star itself has died.”

Chibi Usa frowned, hugging herself as she followed Night and paused by a pair of strongly decorated urns: the chair. It wasn’t a throne, not like Mama’s throne, but it was certainly pieces of what could have once been a throne. Some of the scientists had tried recreating it but they’d only succeeded in finding the bottom half of the backing and the legs, the seat cracked but functional. Night went to sit in the chair, turning her focus onto Chibi Usa.

“That brings me to why I was looking for you,” she said. Chibi Usa tensed, frowning.

“To talk about longevity?” Chibi Usa said. “I know all about that. I’m a lot older than I look.”

“I know,” Night smiled. “Of course I do. You’re aging up, which means you’re at least a five hundred years old, at the minimum.” Chibi Usa’s eyes widened. “Lunarians grow more slowly than other races, especially in this lonely galaxy. Our family is not originally not from here, did you know that? We come from a place far from here called the Shining Galaxy. Have you ever heard of it?”

Chibi Usa swallowed tightly and shook her head. She’d never heard anything of this before, and she’d had daily lessons with her mother for a long time, especially once she became Sailor Chibi Moon.

“The Shining Galaxy is in the heart of a sea of shining stars,” Night explained, smiling as she stared upwards, as if seeing it. “Senshi are everywhere, from every walk of life, from planets big and small. It’s cultured, sophisticated, highly technologically advanced…and we are special, even among that ilk. We are the keepers of the Silver Crystal, the Shining Crystal, the brightest light in the entire universe. Our duty as its keepers extends far beyond simply wielding its power: we nurture its light and evolve with it, change with it. A Silver Crystal is the heart of a Lunarian, born in a new generation, leading its growth so that it may develop with that time, grow stronger and stronger.”

Chibi Usa couldn’t imagine something like that. Crystal Tokyo was a lot like what she was describing, a hub of commerce and culture for the entire galaxy, open to visitors from beyond who brought new ideas and items into circulation. Trade, political policy, love, marriage…Crystal Tokyo offered no judgment in the desires of others, freely offering support and acceptance for many who were not allowed to remain in their own solar systems. They had refugee programs that her mother headed with absolute empathy, always willing to give and work tirelessly with others to make space for others. The youma attacks were frequent and enormous but their uprisings were always swiftly managed and removed. No one wanted to risk the freedom Crystal Tokyo and Earth offered to its neighbors.

When Chibi Usa was older, she was going to learn more about the politics of their surrounding galaxy of friends and neighbors. For now, she knew the different families in her own solar system but one day, she would meet more. But she had never met anyone from the Shining Galaxy.

“Chibi Usa?” Night said. Chibi Usa snapped back to the present, jumping slightly. “Sorry, am I boring you?”

“No, you’re not,” Chibi Usa said quickly. “I’ve just never heard of the Shining Galaxy. I was trying to think if I just didn’t remember studying it. My papa usually teaches me some of that stuff but—,” she paused abruptly. “Anyway, it sounds like it was a beautiful place.”

“It was,” Night said, smiling faintly. “I bring it up for a reason. As the brightest light in this world, we hold a strong responsibility to take care of it.”

“I do take care of it,” Chibi Usa said, flushing with guilt and indignation. She’d lost it a few times but it had always turned out just fine. Even now, it was somewhere close by, she just knew it. It would come back when she needed it, she just had to have hope. “I know what I’m doing.”

“You haven’t been trained,” Night said after a long, tense moment. “I trained your mother. She…struggled. I see you might struggle as well.”

Her face said it all, that restrained disappointment, that disapproving stare. It was the expression Chibi Usa had nightmares about, the one that the Dark Moon family had used to persuade her that her mother hated her and neglected her. An expression her mother never, not once, wore or directed towards her. A surge of protectiveness made her too angry to be polite.

“Mama is amazing with the Crystal,” Chibi Usa said, hot anger making her vision blur with angry tears. “She trained me just fine!”

“I don’t mean to be cruel,” Night said, holding up her hands, her tone firm, “but you were not trained. You don’t have the energy scars from using the Crystal.” She gestured to Chibi Usa’s hair, making her flush. “That is your natural color, isn’t it? We are all like that, born with different coloring. When I was born, my hair was black, as was my sister’s. The more we use the Crystal, the more it bleeds us of our natural coloring.”

Chibi Usa’s eyes widened. Her Mama was, admittedly, very pale and the blond hair Usagi had clearly had changed once she became Queen Serenity. It had never occurred to her that it might have been due to repeated exposure to the Silver Crystal’s light. Or that her own bright pink hair might have been a sign of her failing to use it the way she was supposed to be. Trained? Trained how?

“I can use it,” she said quickly. “I don’t need more training.”

“Speaking of training, there is another matter I wished to discuss with you,” Night said, speaking over Chibi Usa as if she wasn’t there. “I had a sister once. A long time ago. She was Sailor Moon, the Senshi of the Moon, as our aunt before her was, as her aunt before her was. Lunarians are born as twin sets: one to wield and guard the Silver Crystal, the other to fight those enemies who would wish to take it.” She paused. “Serenity did not have a sister, she was born an only child. That is a distortion on its own, that should never have happened. But there is a Sailor Moon here now. That should not be possible.” She hesitated. “I worry that with her distortion, taking on the role of Sailor Moon when it should have never fallen to her, being reborn on Earth, it might be manifesting in you. Which is why you must let me train you.”

“No!” Chibi Usa blurted out. “I don’t need training!” Distortion? What, was she…was she saying Chibi Usa was born wrong?

“You clearly do,” Night said, her tone growing more and more cold. “Just look at how you have been lenient with those youma. I place the blame with your father, clearly his influence cannot be denied in how you tolerate those with evil energy and intentions, but the blame cannot lie entirely with him. You are naive, at the very least. Do you truly believe their interest is authentic, when you have already revealed yourself to be instrumental in their survival?”

“They could be!” Chibi Usa said hotly, angry tears making it harder to see and hear. “You don’t know anything about me! Your stupid kingdom died and all you want to do is keep being queen!”

Night drew back, her eyes narrowing. She didn’t look like Mama anymore, not now. Cold, tall, impenetrable. “That is not my intention,” she said at last.

“Yes it is!” Chibi Usa shouted, scrubbing at her face. “You want to force me to be something I’m not, something Mama isn’t either!”

“Your mother defied my wishes and killed everyone she ever knew,” Night said. “Including your father. Including herself. You are clearly on that road yourself if by your own admission, you put the needs of youma above those of your planet’s people.”

Chibi Usa stared at her. The anxiety she had been feeling for weeks was nothing to the mixture of intense, furious emotions rooting her to the spot. And guilt. The guilt felt like it would choke every angry word from her throat. Taking a deep breath, she made a physical effort to compose herself. Tucking her hands behind her back, she straightened and looked Night straight in the eye.

“Excuse me if I am blunt,” she said. “I have been trained: as a lady, as my mother’s successor, and as a Senshi warrior. I don’t need training for what you’re asking me for. If my mother thought I needed it, she would have taught me. She wanted me to be a normal girl.” Setting her jaw, she took another deep breath through her nose to keep her tone level. “As much as it was possible for me to be normal. I respectfully decline your offer.”

Before Night could say anything, Chibi Usa pivoted on her heel and walked, as calmly and as quickly, as she could away from the broken chair and its broken queen. Who cared about…about stupid Silver Millennium and stupid Night, who pretended to be a grandmother but was...was so cold, so removed. She wasn’t like a warm grandmother at all, nothing like Ikuko. Usagi’s mother was more a grandmother than whoever that person had been, more like a person Chibi Usa would go to for help or support.

She would rather run through the world an ignorant Rabbit than a trained monster like she was describing.

***

Bran knew the second they were free of the doors and the bunker that going outside was a shit idea. Jukai floated overhead, laughing and playing with balloons he manifested to entertain himself, which was fine. He liked the kid, liked looking after him. He made a terrible pirate but he’d been through hell with the Senshi of the galaxy they’d found him in, he cut the kid a lot of slack. Chixota, on the other hand, took one look around, wrinkled his nose, and said, “It was a mistake to come to this dumb-fuck planet.”

He rose up into the air using the charm he’d stolen from the main hoard (Bran couldn’t prove it, his father said not to be such a pushy asshole about it, but he knew Chixota was a lying sack of shit and stealing from all of them) and seemed to be going in a specific direction. Jukai waited for Bran, upturned face smiling with admiration as he waited for their next direction. Bran sighed and followed after Chixota, dread pooling in his stomach.

He’d promised Usa he’d be back. Not that he didn’t lie. He lied all the time. But he liked Usa. She was cute, in a prissy sort of way, and her…eyes…had a way of being so fucking open, so trusting, even when she said she didn’t trust him. Hell, she was the Small Lady of Crystal fucking Tokyo. She had more reason than anyone not to trust a single thing he said. But he’d promised and he felt more and more uncomfortable as he felt the negative energy charge shift around them.

The barrier that the Senshi had created was an incomplete, patchwork mess in a lot of places. He hadn’t said anything to anyone but he had seen the way the sky lit up when lightning struck or when the wind blew, and he could see the gapping holes where the youma above teamed. It wasn’t just their crowd either, the ones from the future that had attacked Crystal Tokyo, swarming high above.

Must have been youma from other times, other places, all given an opening in the Time tunnel to escape wherever they’d been trapped. Bran shuddered, thinking of the hours he’d spent there before he noticed Usa. He hadn’t told her how long he’d been there. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure himself. A long ass time. A long ass, lonely time.

“Hurry up,” Chixota called behind him. Bran muttered but sped up, for a crazy moment thinking that maybe Chixota knew where Bran’s father was.

Instead of the sleek, low-hulled Drake with its tattered black sails and masthead of a many-tailed mermaid, something else manifested in the storm cloud above the compound. First, the gardens. Bran wrinkled his nose at the familiar scenery as it appeared: wrought-iron gates, manicured patches of darkness like grass, trees with gnarled branches. At the end of the long path, a palace of black on black on black. Shadows. How the hell did youma expect people to see in that shit? He had amazing night vision but even he found staring at just one color boring.

“Where are we going,” Bran muttered, growing more annoyed as Chixota kept going on the path like this was the best haul ever. No surprise either.

Fuck.

He knew it. Chixota, landing on the Drake, preening like a fucking peacock youma about finding the best heist this side of the galaxy. He’d pretended he’d only just found out about it right before the attack on the Crystal Palace: get in while others fought, steal a few valuable souvenirs from the palace, get out before the Senshi dusted everyone who had a bone to pick with them. But it was Chixota, so of course there was some other angle he wasn’t going to tell people about.

“Just be quiet and let me do the talking,” Chixota said, his shoulders squared and his chin up. Posturing. Perfect. “This isn’t a place where they’re going to be impressed about your father. These people are serious.”

That usually meant they fucked with Senshi. Just perfect. Bran shoved his hands into his pockets and whistled sharply. Jukai, who’d been floating from bush to bush, inspecting the sad-looking gray flowers, floated up to his side.

“Stick with me,” he said firmly. “Whatever’s up ahead, they’re going to be just as likely to kill us as help us.”

Jukai, for all his carefree attitude, knew when Bran was looking out for him. He floated and moved up behind him, wrapping his arms around Bran’s shoulders and holding onto him. He did that thing where he muttered quietly to himself to be quiet and be good, but only Bran could hear so it was fine. The kid got nervous around youma bigger and scarier than him, which basically meant everyone.

He expected a grand foyer with double staircases and chandeliers lit with candles that glowed with evil energy, maybe a grand party, youma feasting and dancing inside. He was surprised that inside of the palace was not more luxury, but simple, plain walls. No adornments, not even paintings of the grand youma before them. As he looked around, shadowed youma dashed nearby in regimented groups.

Military drills.

Alarm crawled up Bran’s spine as he looked around. It reminded him of the Shining Galaxy, and that was the worst thing he could think of in a place like this. He carefully took his hands out of his pockets and walked with his claws relaxed but extended. Ready to defend or flee or fight, if he had to.

“Where are we,” Bran muttered. “Chixota, this place…I don’t think we should be here.”

“If you are new recruits, we are assigning tactical roles in the courtyard behind you,” a voice said from the doorway ahead of them. A woman with a bow for an arm came closer, her other arm (in the shape of an arrow), pointed back and away. “You cannot wander here freely.”

“They are here to see Wise Man,” another voice said. Bran couldn’t quite see the broad-shoulders man, his reddish-black hair on fire as he walked by, but all of the shadows nearby stopped what they were doing to bow to him. Oh, hell no. Not a youma. Or not just a youma. Bran didn’t fuck with possessed people, or corrupted people, or people who had once been fine and were now more negative energy than anyone else in the room. They did crazy shit for revenge and Bran didn’t want any part of it.

“Of course, Master,” the bow-armed woman said, lowering her head before following after him.

“Chixota,” Bran started, his voice low and tense.

“Ah, you’re back, and you’ve brought companions,” a quiet voice said. Bran expected some kind of shadow to approach them, since this place had no color - he stood out like a canary, all brilliant blues and greens, Jukai with his bright child’s red and purple balloon pants–but the man who approached them had human arms, with human fingers and faintly pinkish-colored flesh. The only weird part about him was that his hood completely obstructed his face so that only his arms were visible while the rest of him was shrouded. He even smelled human.

“Wise Man, it’s a pleasure to see you here, I wasn’t sure you’d made it through the tunnel,” Chixota said, bowing his head as he stopped in front of him.

“It takes more than the power of one Senshi to stop me,” the human chuckled, shrugging one shoulder. Not human? From another planet? “Although, I had only heard rumors of a Senshi powerful enough to control Time. I thought she was only a legend.”

“She’s real enough,” Chixota said eagerly. “We’ve seen her. She isn’t in the compound anymore, she’s gone back to the tunnel to close it so she is no longer defending the humans.”

“Ah, that is very interesting,” the man said, his head turning towards Bran. It was hard to see where he was looking, with the hood, but Bran could feel the gaze on him like a wet hand. Bran’s hair stood up, his back straightening. “You have not introduced your companions.”

“This is Eoxinobran, son of Doxinohan, the Captain of the Drake that travels across the galaxies,” Chixota explained. “And this is Jukai.” He gestured dismissively at him. Jukai didn’t even lift his head, staying huddled behind Bran. Bran didn’t blame him - the guy’s energy was making his skin crawl. “Bran, Jukai, this is the Wise Man.”

“Is that really your name?” Bran asked before he could shut his big mouth. Having that attention back on him made it worse, especially when the man chuckled.

“I do know the infamous youma ship, the Drake,” he said. “Although, it is not sailed by Doxinohan. I am certain he will one day come to it.”

“But is Wise Man your name,” Bran said again. Chixota shot him a glare but he ignored it.

A name was powerful among youma. You could get a real sense for a person, a good idea of what sort of being they were and how they saw themselves. Wise Man was clearly some kind of alias. Bran made it a point to follow in his father’s footsteps: always get a true name, stay the fuck away from Senshi, steal anything that wasn’t nailed down. Simple.

“You may know me as the Death Phantom,” the man said, the laughter in his voice sending another chill down Bran’s spine. “I was a citizen of Crystal Tokyo…that is, before I was exiled to Nemesis. It seems I have quite the opportunity to turn the tables, don’t I?”

Bran swallowed tightly and nodded. “Sure,” he managed to get out through clenched lips. Fuck. The Death Phantom? THE Death Phantom? He’d heard of the fucker alright. He had to suppress the shudder he felt being so close to him. He straightened, surreptitiously brushing his hair back and wishing he’d taken the time to at least clean his shoes before they came to this hellhole. “Sorry for being rude, sir. Just like to know who I’m dealing with and my companion didn’t mention knowing you.”

“That secrecy was at my behest, I’m afraid,” Wise Man said (even if he was the Death Phantom, Bran had no plans to go against whatever he wanted to be known as). “I was very surprised to come here into this past and I felt it better to be conservative. But what an opportunity, don’t you agree? Where is Neo Queen Serenity? Where are the Senshi? They are here but so primitive. So young. So defenseless. I find the opportunity irresistible. Don’t you?”

That’s when Bran felt it: that tug of persuasive energy. He’d heard rumors about the Death Phantom, knew that he was considered evil among evil youma. Going toe-to-toe against the people in Crystal Tokyo, anyone not interested in politics stayed the hell away from him and his people. His father had made him swear never to dip into Death Phantom affairs. So much for that.

Most youma were solitary or clustered for survival. Outright chaotic, scrappy, most youma kept to themselves, quietly taking their meals of energy, trying to just get by. But there were youma in the universe with evil intent, true evil intent. The Death Phantom was the sort of thing his father had used as bed time stories to terrify him when he’d been a brat all day. Meeting him in the flesh felt both anticlimactic and somehow far worse than Bran’d expected, mostly because he’d never thought to be in a situation to meet him.

“I think it’s a good idea to find a way home soon,” Bran said. “I’m a simple pirate: get in, get out with some treasure, sleep on the Drake, plan for a way to spend all that money I’m going to make. I leave the big plans to people like you, sir.”

“As it should be,” Wise Man said with an amused laugh. “You have a straight-forward nature about you, Bran. I like you. Hopefully, we will cross paths again. Where are you headed? Or has Chixota persuaded you to join our cause?”

“I have to find my crew,” Bran said, trying to sound contrite. “Sorry. Good luck though, I won’t stand in your way.”

“Are you certain?” Wise Man said, smiling wider. “Chixota seems to think that you know something that might be valuable to me.” Bran shot a glance at Chixota and there was an odd haze around his head. Persuasion? Or was Wise Man trying to dig inside of his mind for information? Whatever it was, Chixota had clearly agreed to it because he was conscious and nodding.

“Met the princess,” he volunteered, shrugged. “She seems pretty naive. She just let me leave, just like that.”

“How interesting,” Wise Man said. “Perhaps I will see about meeting her. I’ve heard a great deal about the young princess. Do you know that the youma call her Rabbit?” He chuckled. “Every time she has left the palace, we call it Rabbit Hunting.”

Bran felt an odd wave of protectiveness for Usa hit him. Fuckers didn’t have to treat her like that, she really hated that shit. He didn’t, just forced himself to snort a laugh. “Yeah, well, not my concern. I’m not from this galaxy, I travel around a lot.”

“I haven’t traveled in some time,” Wise Man said, producing a crystal ball from the depths of his robes. “Where did you say you came from?”

“Here and there,” Bran said, glancing around. “Anyway, it was nice to meet you. I’ve really got to get going. Who knows how this whole thing is going to turn out, right? Senshi, you being here…not really a place for a fox like me.”

“Certainly not,” Wise Man said, still chuckling. “Very well. I shall tell Ares and his ilk to let you by. They’re more interested in bigger fish.” He drew back and vanished through the wall, leaving the space somehow lighter for his presence.

Jukai made a whining sound but Bran didn’t say or do anything. Just because the fucker wasn’t visible didn’t mean he was gone. Or not watching. Instead, he glared at Chixota.

“What the actual fuck,” Bran muttered through clenched teeth.

“I’m sticking around,” Chixota said, grinning as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “This is going to be huge. You’ve got no idea. You should stay. Make some decisions for yourself, for once.”

“Yeah, no,” Bran said, pivoting on his heel and walking (walking, definitely not running), as fast as he could through the eerie courtyard, through the archway, past the grounds, through the wrought iron gate, and finally to the gardens extending beyond the Shadow Palace. Wherever, or whatever, that place was, he suddenly missed the suffocating familiarity of the Artemis IV compound.

“Bran,” Jukai whimpered.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re okay,” Bran said, twisting in the air as he moved quickly, offering Jukai a big hug. “You’re okay. He’s not going to do anything to you.”

“He kept STARING at me,” Jukai said, his voice small and terrified. “He’s evil. He’s MEAN.”

“Well, the Death Phantom doesn’t have a reputation for handing out cookies,” Bran admitted, patting his back. “It’s okay. We’re out of there. I don’t care what Chixota thinks he’s doing, he’s out of his mind. We stay the fuck out of politics, I don’t care if it’s for or against the Senshi. Not sticking my nose in it. You can’t pay me enough to get involved and I don’t want to hear a word about you trying to go back there by yourself. You hear me? We didn’t even see everyone who’s in there. Just stick with me and everything’s going to be okay, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jukai mumbled, squirming free from the hug to hide behind him again. Bran sighed, hurrying down to the ground and back towards the compound. The longer he stayed out, the longer he was going to be a moving target.

Senshi wanted to kill him, now youma he knew for a fact killed other youma were in on the equation. And there were more of them, Wise Man had said it himself. Would the Senshi know him by reputation? Probably not. Oh, fuck, he was from the future. Only Usa might know who he was. Maybe. But how could she? She barely knew anything about youma, why would she have heard of a famous one like that?

He just wasn’t going to mess with it. Either the Senshi were powerful enough to keep him out and eventually send him back to where he came from or he’d kill them and Bran would have no say in it anyway. Regardless, he was getting his ass back in the compound. No more whining about being trapped inside if this was what waited for him outside.

***

He expected to find Usa wandering around looking at exhibits and being bored some more but he had a lot of trouble finding her once he got back inside (the human security was laughable but extensive, and he was trying not to draw attention to himself by anyone). Eventually, he went to the cafeteria on the bottom floor, deep underground where everyone had taken up residence. Usa was curled up in the corner of the room, knees tucked up under her chin and staring at the wall. Her hair was in those weird cones, trailing over her shoulders and reminding him of the Rabbit comment. She’d clearly been crying.

“I leave for a few hours and you’re bawling in the basement?” Bran said, grabbing a chair and moving to sit with her.

Usa jerked up, scrubbing at her face. “You came back!” she cried. Loud, she was really fucking loud, but Bran just grunted.

“I told you I would.”

She launched herself at him, and for someone so small, she packed a punch when she hugged him. And started bawling all over again.

“What in the hell!” Bran complained, even as he hugged her reflexively.

“I th-thought you’d n-never come back!” she sobbed, hugging tightly to him.

Bran was flabbergasted. What in the hell…he was gone for a little while and she was a crying mess? What was going on? He struggled to figure out what to say but he didn’t seem to need to do anything because Usa just kept bawling and talking while she was bawling.

“N-Night said I was born wrong,” she admitted, in a hiccuping whisper that turned into louder crying.

“The Queen?” Bran said, flexing his ears back. “She’s weird. Who the fuck is she to talk anyway?”

“Yeah,” Usa mumbled, squeezing him. “She said she wanted to train me. Said my mom was…” but she didn’t say any word that Bran understood through the sobbing. He decided to settle for grunts and pats because he had zero understanding of how to handle a crying woman, whether she was human or otherwise.

“She said we’re from the s-stupid S-Shining Galaxy,” she said.

“That shithole?” Bran muttered. That got Usa to stop crying and lift her head to stare at him.

“You know it?” she asked, her tone going low and miserable and quiet. “Is it…is it really a shithole or is it actually really nice and I was stupid saying I didn’t want to be like them?”

Bran thought about that. Really thought about it. It helped that Usa had stopped wailing in his ear but it was also a complicated question. Finally, he settled for, “If it was really so great there, why’d you leave?” He wrinkled his nose. “It’s the worst place for youma. Of any kind. Even the…none-trouble-making ones. You know. Not…like me. Like Jukai.”

“Oh,” Usa said, clearly calming down. She jumped across emotions like they were ledges, from extreme to extreme, but he was grateful she wasn’t crying anymore. “Good. This is much better.” She waited for him to agree with her and for once, he didn’t feel any regret nodding.

“Hated it there,” he admitted. “Better here for sure.”

He had planned to at least warn her, about the Shadow Palace, Wise Man, this weird Ares guy who seemed to have his own agenda. But she just looked so grateful for helping her feel better about some weird fight she’d had that he didn’t want to make it worse scaring her.

“Thanks,” she said, sitting back and scrubbing her eyes. “Where did you go? Where are the others?”

“Chixota’s gone,” Bran admitted. “Jukai’s getting some sleep in the control room.” He considered it, then added, “The fresh air was a bust. Really boring. You should be glad you didn’t come along.”

He hated that her grateful smile made him happy.

***

Makoto thrashed, a heavy weight like an anvil on her chest making it impossible to do more than kick and thrash. She couldn’t even gather the breath to scream, or fight, or do anything but sink lower and lower and even lower. Until she heard more than felt a pop, something puncture, something wet where air should be, so much pressure she couldn’t think, couldn’t see. Couldn’t escape.

She woke when she thrashed herself out of bed, landing in a heap on the floor breathing so hard she felt dizzy. She didn’t bother getting up, sinking to her knees and resting her forehead against the floor. Hell.

It took her another minute to sit up and stare at the alarm clock ticking lightly. Two in the morning. Their flight was at seven in the morning. She still had a handful of hours to sleep but it was just impossible after that never ending nightmare.

Going into the kitchen, she made herself a cup of tea and sank into a chair.

A plane. A country where she didn’t know the language. Who knew what kind of history? Was she weird because she didn’t remember anything about her past life? Everyone else seemed to.

Closing her eyes and rubbing both hands over her face, Makoto wished she could talk to someone about it. Ami might have been awake but Makoto would never forgive herself if she woke Ami in the few hours she let herself sleep. They were all running ragged and she was whining about stupid nightmares she couldn’t even remember.

Standing back up, she put the tea in the sink and went to check her packed bag one more time. Soon, she would leave the country with Minako and Mamoru and Artemis. Soon, she would be in a place to confront a past she had no recollection of. And maybe soon, the irrational fear blossoming in her heart would have a face and a name, and she could kick it, or kiss it, or…figure out what it was that had her all tied up in knots like this.

At times like this, she wished she had someone…like Usagi had Mamoru, like Minako and Rei had each other now. It was such a dumb thing to want but…she still wanted it. Maybe someday, if they ever stopped fighting long enough, she’d find someone worth spending her life with.


	4. Beneath the Tree of Memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a crazy month, ya’ll. Just got a new job that took up more time than I expected but this story is still somehow churning. Let’s thank the Lunar gods this time for this one! Hope you like it and everyone is staying safe!

Makoto found she hated airports as much as she hated airplanes. There were enormous lines, people telling other people what to do in the most clinical, impersonal way possible, and everything smelled funny. Sterile. Nothing warm or familiar or human at all.

“Smells like home,” Ami murmured quietly. When Makoto heard her and turned her head, Ami seemed surprised. Then she smiled. “Mercury. It smells sterile and inpersonal. I hated it.”

Makoto felt a wave of emotion. It came from nowhere, had nothing connected to it, no memories to offer up, just…sorrow. She crushed Ami in a tight hug, trembling as she did. Ami seemed to understand even if Makoto didn’t because she hugged her back tightly, her arms tight. “It’s okay,” she said quietly. “The plane will be okay.”

“Not that,” Makoto whispered. “Something…I can’t remember.”

“Oh,” Ami seemed to consider that for a long moment, then said, “He’s okay. You might not remember but I do. He’s okay.”

For some reason, that calmed some of Makoto’s fears. She didn’t dare ask who “he” was. She just knew that there was someone she was worried about and the thought of…him, in a place like that…. Her head hurt. She couldn’t remember and it would be horrible for anyone to know she didn’t remember them. She stared at Ami wordlessly but Ami just smiled up at her. “I’m sorry,” Makoto said miserably.

“Makoto, we love you, no matter what,” Ami said. “We’re all scared of things and we’ve all done things we don’t want to remember or we wish we did.” She squeezed her arms. “You’re always going to be you and we’ll never forget it.”

Makoto smiled and wiped her cheeks, nodding as she hugged Ami again. “Keep Usagi safe.”

“Keep Mamoru safe,” Ami said. “You can accomplish anything. We’ve gone through the worst and come out stronger.” She squeezed her again. “I believe in you.”

“Thanks, Ami,” Makoto said, nodding. She felt stronger, even if thought of getting on an airplane made her skin crawl. Taking a deep breath, she straightened up. “Alright. I’m ready.”

Ami smiled and handed her a ticket. She’d bought all of the tickets using the jewelry her mother had given her. They all knew Ami’s mom had a lot of money but this was the sort of personal sacrifice none of them had expected to make. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves by traveling by other means because of the volatility of the barrier (even Ami didn’t trust it) but when they’d tried to talk to her about it, Ami had been short with all of them.

“It needs to be done,” she said, and refused to discuss it any more.

Makoto took the ticket reverently and nodded to her. “I won’t let you down.”

***

Lillian watched Venus growing smaller as their ship cruised away from the glowing planet, her fingers leaving faint smudges on the glass. Silvia would have yelled at her about it if she wasn’t telling the pilot exactly how he was supposed to enter into Earth’s atmosphere to avoid the shields already up around the palace. Or compound. Lillian didn’t have details about where or who was going to be there, or much of anything. It didn’t matter that she was a princess of Venus because none of her sisters seemed to care for her opinion or contribution.

She wandered away from the glass, hoping to spy some additional information from one of the prompters when she noticed something. Arianna, the second oldest, wasn’t beside Silvia, being a bossy pain. She was sitting at her seat, completely strapped in despite the cruising speed, her eyes closed and her hands clenched like claws over the arms of the chair.

Lillian debated speaking to her (it was never clear if Arianna was going to be kind or cruel) but Arianna made a soft whimpering sound, almost too soft to hear. Lillian went to her side, crouching beside her, and very carefully touched her hand. “Are you okay?”

Arianna jumped, turned her head to stare at her, blanched, then nodded. After a long moment, her lower lip trembled and she said, “I really hate traveling this way.”

It was the most brutally honest thing Lillian could remember her sister saying to her. She was normally…distracted, or at least not nice. Not openly mean but not nice. This was weirdly vulnerable from her.

“Is there something I can do?” Lillian asked.

“No,” Arianna barked a laugh that sounded almost like a sob. Closing her eyes, she inhaled slowly through her nose. “You were born on this route.”

Lillian felt herself flush. Oh. She looked more carefully out of the glass windows, seeing all around them the space and floating debris of…old ships. A chill went down her spine as she squeezed Arianna’s hand.

“I was here,” Arianna said quietly. “When you were born. It was…it was really bloody. We lost everything that night. It was the longest night of my life.”

Lillian had never heard this story. She had heard of it, but never told the story. She wanted so much to ask Arianna, in this moment where she was being open and honest, about how their mother had given birth to her in space instead of in the Magellan Castle, but Arianna had opened her eyes and screamed. Lillian jerked around, her eyes widening as something moved in the darkness of space and a beam of light hit the ship. She screamed, grabbing onto the seat as they were tipped sideways, Arianna grabbing at her to keep her from flying off.

“What’s happening!” Arianna screamed, holding onto Lillian’s arms in a vice grip.

“Silvia?” Lillian tore her gaze to the side as the ship righted its gravity, landing with a thwack on her knees. Silvia lay crumpled across the control panel on the other side of the ship, her eyes wide and her breathing hard. “Silvia!”

“Silvia!” Arianna wrenched at the bonds holding her in her seat. Both sisters ran to Silvia, who continued to stare off. Was she conscious? Before Lillian could ask, Arianna slapped her hard enough to echo in the space.

“Wake up!” Arianna snarled. “Strap in if you’re not injured. Evasive action!” She ran back to the pilot, who snapped into action. Silvia reddened but snapped her jaw shut, eyes narrowed as she let Lillian help her down. She was bleeding from the head and had a weird limp to her gait as she moved, but she did move. They strapped themselves into their seats as Arianna, petrified moments before, looped her hand into the buckle on the pilot’s chair and spoke rapid-fire orders into his ear. The ship jerked to the side, then trembled as it was hit again.

“What’s attacking us?” Lillian whispered.

“Pirates,” Silvia spat. She pointed to a spot to the far side, still in the darkness. “Youma. I’ve never seen them in this part of the solar system for centuries. They used to run rampant in this area before the Silver Millennium Senshi ran them out. Hold on tight.”

Lillian stared at the spot, trying to see the darkened mass that fired mercilessly down on them. She remembered the fear in Arianna’s eyes when she said that Lillian had been born in space. Like this? Under attack like this?

The ship rocked with another impact, the sudden grating sound of tearing metal setting her teeth on edge as her jaw snapped shut. She tasted blood in her mouth but didn’t dare swallow, clenching her eyes.

“Urgent distress,” Arianna was saying, her tone hard but low. “Come in, we are under attack. Urgent distress, send help immediately. I repeat, we are under attack. Shit!”

Lillian opened her eyes as the ship slowed to a sickening halt. Instead of a ship, a massive cloud seemed to billow all around them, clogging their engines and darkening the stars around. The cloud had something inside of it, some massive structure that sucked in all the light around it, seeming to form a shape from what was not there: columns, walls, fountains, ornaments. A man with brilliant hair like fire became visible, wielding some kind of flaming sword. As he raised it, the darkness washed over their ship like a tidal wave.

***

“How long ago did we receive the distress signal?” Queen Frida asked, her red nails tapping impatiently on the control panel.

“Two hours ago,” Mulciber said, his voice muffled by the atmosphere helmet he wore over his armor. His sword glowed as he tapped in the combination code to adjust the speakers directly into the helmet, his breathing getting much louder. “We’re going to find them. It was a shit plan anyway, don’t blame yourself. We made the mistake.”

“There is no time for blame,” Hephaestus said from his own station. Surrounded by heavy artillery, his sword was far more decorative than Mulciber’s–infused with similar Mercurian technology, it offered an opportunity for communication that would be impossible otherwise. “Give me a few minutes to set up reconnaissance. We don’t yet know if they’re still fighting or if we are looking for a salvage job.”

“Take your time,” Frida said, sitting back and crossing her arms over her chest, closing her eyes.

Frida had always been an advocate for the unity of their Solar System’s resources but now didn’t like their dependence on the technology. Restoration efforts and crisis control teams were still handling the tremors and damage done by the recent shockwaves created by the Silver Crystal’s power. She was embarrassed to be told she’d experienced something like it as a child but couldn’t remember it, no matter how much Hephaestus tried to remind her.

“She was a fucking baby, what do you expect?” Mulciber had grunted, putting an end to the conversation.

Residents of Mars, comfortable in highly-controlled environments, had needed to return to the surface in temporary escape structures normally used for monitoring weather patterns and climate conditions for food production. Earth probes and satellites picked up their frequencies and sent wild messages to them in those most arcane form possible, amusing controllers but also clogging up frequencies while teams worked.

Routine, normal life had been interrupted and the societal pressures of behaving like a strong leader were difficult to follow through on when her uncles, her most trusted advisors, argued against war.

Martians preferred war as a solution to most problems, even if their battles had been left mostly with Jupiter royals trying to test out their abilities or the occasional rogue youma group hoping to get a foothold into their region. Frida preferred peace because it was more stable but she knew that this was the sort of unprecedented action that she could not be expected to ignore. Public opinion was putting pressure on her to act, and to act publicly, to demonstrate the might of the Martian power. They would expect her to act, to attack, to fight for them.

Hephaestus had shaken his head. “We don’t have enough tactical information for that,” he’d said, as if she was a child again. “We can go and see for ourselves if these people are who they claim to be.” He’d said it with the same tone he used when describing a tenth scouting mission, or tangling with a known adversary: routine, unlikely to be different, completely necessary to be thorough. He expected this to be nothing but, as always, he taught her patience when she wanted to impulsively prove herself.

Now Venus’s ship, filled with their entire ruling family (the idiots), had been attacked with time to send only one distress signal before their presence was blighted out by something yet unidentified. No other planet was close enough to send help. No other planet would send help anyway. They were Martian; their appetite for battle was expected, which was probably why the Venetian ship had sent their message directly to them.

Frida looked up when she heard a sound but the communication was still down between her and her uncles. She sighed and relaxed, closing her eyes.

Among the other rulers of the Solar System, she was by far the youngest of them. The Queens of Mercury and Venus, touched by the Silver Crystal’s light over a thousand years ago and looking young enough to be timeless, were much older than she was, even if she had been exposed as a child to the Silver Crystal and aged in a strange way. She looked older than her uncles, with gray in her hair, and arthritis in her hands, but she was far less experienced even than the Jupiter princes and princesses born to the Silver Millennium era. It was expected for her to behave with the dignity and knowledge of centuries, even though she had struggled to keep up with the vast knowledge of those who had lived through times she was too young to remember.

Glancing to the side of her monitor, she saw another news bulletin with a picture of her, adjusted to make her hair look more gray, the lines in her face more pronounced:

QUEEN FRIDA FRIGHTENED BY UNKNOWN ENEMY

IS HER SCANDALOUS BIRTH TO BLAME FOR YOUMA LENIENCY?

She shut the feed off, turning back to the reports on the screen. She’d long ago learned to ignore those sorts of attacks. The subject of her birth only became a scandal when she didn’t do what one political leaning or the other didn’t want. It didn’t help that this missing ship was from Venus, and her mother had been from Venus. So…it was inevitable for these stories to crop back up.

She looked again at another bulletin.

This one had a picture of a photograph, back when she’d been a child. Sitting on the throne with a crown too large for her head, her uncles stood beside her. They looked like her older brothers, not her uncles, and Mulciber’s face had that gaunt look she remembered only from her nightmares. He didn’t look like that anymore, like he’d lost everything, but the news feeds loved to dig up those old family images.

SCANDALOUS QUEEN FRIDA BLINDED BY PAST

IS IT TIME FOR A NEW RULER?

“We’re online now,” Hephaestus said. Frida adjusted her posture, focusing back on the present instead of the niggling, eroding feeling of being a child again. “Have the scouts sent back any information?”

“No,” Mulciber’s voice was strained. “It’s freezing. I hate space.” The monitor showing his face blipped and then steadied on his prominent scowl. “I don’t see any signs of the ship or wreckage. I’m going to take a closer look, see what I can find on the other side of this asteroid belt.”

He signaled Hephaestus to show his position before moving away, his signal growing a bit fainter as it moved from the main ship. Hephaestus’s gaze turned towards his screen, where a small image of Frida’s own face frowned up at him. “Don’t read the headlines anymore.”

“I wasn’t,” Frida said, maintaining a stoic expression. “You should be focusing on what’s ahead.”

“Mulciber can handle a rogue spaceship attack,” Hephaestus said. “I’m not concerned for him. I’m concerned for you. Public opinion of you has always been a tumultuous affair but the rumors about Sailor Mars are going to spark them all up again. I’d rather prepare you for that ahead of time while I still can. As much as I can.”

“Uncle, it’s alright,” Frida said quietly. “I know that she was supposed to be Queen.”

“No, she wasn’t,” Hephaestus said firmly. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. The people in the news feeds have no idea what they’re talking about. Senshi politics are tricky. We never bothered to teach them to you because we thought…” he paused.

“You thought they were all killed?” Frida supplied, her tone cold. “I don’t approve of keeping vital information from me even if you think it is irrelevant. I’m not a child.”

“I know you’re not,” Hephaestus said with a long-suffering sigh. “We both do. It’s hard for Cib and I to remember you’re older. We’re so used to being your uncles, it’s hard to feel like we won’t be necessary to you forever.”

Frida felt an odd twinge in her heart. Her uncles had been the constant of her life, it had never occurred to her that they might not be there one day. “Are you leaving?”

“What? No! I was just…ruminating,” Hephaestus said with a laugh. His tone hardened as he said, “Anyway, you need to know that you are the rightful queen, no matter what anyone else says. The selection for Senshi is very simple: when all of the Senshi of a team die, the new ones are selected. I was there when the new Senshi were selected and Sailor Mars was very clearly picked. It’s how we discovered you at all: you were a secret your father kept even from her.”

Frida swallowed tightly. “Did my father know Sailor Mars?”

“She was his favorite person,” Hepahestus said, his tone changing. When he swallowed, a sharp click over the intercom. “She was all of our favorites. We lost our parents a long time ago and she was our only sister. Your father and Sailor Mars were twins. The youngest. Cib and I were so happy when we could come back from war to see them, to care for them. We thought it was so clear that she would become queen.”

He was quiet for so long that Frida thought he’d been cut off. Then he heaved a long, tired sigh. “I miss her too, you know.”

“Then she was supposed to be queen,” Frida whispered.

“No,” Hephaestus’s voice became harder. “No, she wasn’t. She was always going to be Sailor Mars. She was selected. There’s no mistaking it. It’s not by any person, the planet itself picks…and it picked you to be queen, even when you were a baby hidden away, and it picked her. It was done. We had nothing to say about it but there was no mystery. You have always been meant to be queen.”

There was something about the way that Uncle Hephaestus said things, with finality, with firm decisive, exhausted certainty, that made Frida finally relax. She took a shuddering breath with her eyes closed.

“Thank you, uncle,” she said.

“Don’t thank me,” Hephaestus said. “We didn’t want to bring it up. Cib isn’t over it, even now. It’s still painful for both of us, but especially for him. Talking about it makes him even angrier or I would have told you a long time ago.”

Frida smiled faintly. “I know he’s struggling. If he needs something, he can come to me. And so can you.”

“I know, sweetheart,” Hephaestus said with a chuckle. “We try not to burden you but…wait a minute. Mulciber, report.”

Static came over the intercom, then the sounds of heavy breathing and startled cursing. No words, even as angry shouting was cut off.

“What in the…shit, Cib! Don’t go in there! Gods,” then the feed cut out. Frida refocused on the screen as a series of stuttered sounds and flashes of light showed before the crystal-clear image of a palace floating in a dark cloud appeared on the monitor.

“Cib! It’s a trap!” Hephaestus’s voice suddenly blasted into the speakers, his normally calm voice terrified and loud. “Cib! Fuck! Urgent distress, I repeat, this is an urgent distress call! I…we need backup, and fast! Fuck! Cib!”

“Uncle Hephaestus!” Frida shouted, rising to her feet. “We hear you, we’re sending back up!”

“No! Not you!” Hephaestus shouted back, his voice echoing. “The Senshi! Get the fucking Senshi!”

“I…” Frida was suddenly at a loss. Then she snapped at her controller, “The Senshi are logged into the Mercury system, aren’t they? That means they can receive messages. Send them an urgent distress message at once! Send them the coordinators to where my uncles are. Now!”

***

Rei couldn’t sleep. Turning over, she felt instinctively along the pillow for Minako’s tangle of blond hair. She stopped when she realized what she was doing, opening her eyes. She stared at the opposite wall, holding her breath as she struggled to reconcile the present and the past. Where was she? Who was she? What was the dream?

She closed her eyes as she heard the familiar wind against her open window. Earth had a smell like no other place she had ever been. It grounded her, soothed her raging feelings, her sudden anxiety and dread. The dread had been building for weeks now, something she had learned to hone and temper with prudence and observation. She sensed enemies when they approached the galaxy, often when Neptune and Uranus deflected such threats. They were busy now and the threat of danger felt like it was suffocating her, setting off every alarm in her brain and gut.

Rolling out of bed, she worked out the kinks in her shoulders. Thought about sending Minako a message. She would still be flying now. Maybe that was why she was so anxious, why that sense of dread wouldn’t stop choking her. Closing her eyes, she tried to sense where Minako was, but could feel nothing but darkness.

She bathed and dressed in her robes, going to the Great Fire. Her grandfather saw her walking and waved to her. He suspected something, she knew he did because of the way she had been behaving lately, but there was nothing she could do. The dread only intensified when she thought about him finding out about her or anything about her true life.

All of them would have to face that reality soon, she knew that even if they were keeping the truth from Usagi: there was simply going to be a point where they could no longer live their human lives anymore. They would become what they were meant to be, Senshi and princess, forced out into the open. How, she didn’t know. Or when.

She was startled to find Ami in the room with the Great Fire, curled up in a sleeping bag with her laptop right beside her head. She even had her glasses on, her hands twitching in her sleep.

Rei checked the watch at her wrist, frowning. She should have been in school. Both of them should have been, but Ami genuinely cared about her position in the school’s academic pecking order. Rei had no one like Ami to compete against in her school, and besides it had been temporarily closed for repairs since one of the youma attacks had damaged the main gymnasium. Ami’s school was still running and Usagi was there alone. Well, with Luna. Luna had taken to following Usagi directly into her classes, perching in trees or wandering in during lunch now that it was going to be just her and Ami. But Ami was here.

Usagi hadn’t said a word through the comms. She must have known better than all of them that Ami needed some time to process what was happening. It was hard to remember that each of them had their own thoughts and feelings about what was happening and what they were all remembering. Rei had the comfort of having Minako close by, able to talk to their complicated history, their painful fights and the ruin of their past lives while trying to grow something new and fragile between them with the safety of understanding. Ami’s past was riddled with pain in a way Rei didn’t really understand, couldn’t fathom, and Ami had been extremely quiet about it. Makoto might have understood, but Makoto didn’t remember. That meant Ami was handling a lot of her own pain alone.

Moving closer, Rei dropped beside her and gently pet her hair. They all needed to be strong for one another. It made no sense to suffer alone. She understood, just as the others did. At least Ami had come here to be comforted instead of locking herself at home or somewhere else. She’d come to her without asking. That had to be its own message.

Something inside of Ami’s blanket started to buzz, a light shining up to illuminate her face.

Ami jerked awake, barely opening her eyes as she fumbled around. She froze when she saw Rei, then smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I…I couldn’t sleep at home.”

“It’s fine, you can come here anytime,” Rei said, nodding to the small Mercury computer. “What’s going on?”

“A distress call,” Ami said as she opened it, typing a quick litany of letters as she frowned, scanning the contents for a long moment. “There’s been an attack. Youma. The Venus royal family is in danger.” Her fingers paused. “We should help them.”

Rei found that the automatic agreement froze on her tongue. “They were horrible to Minako,” she heard herself say. Ami watched her for a long moment, fingers frozen over the keys. She didn’t say anything. Rei felt that odd double-vision tugging at her, emotion and anger clouding her judgment. She closed her eyes and sighed, feeling the heat and security of the Great Fire in the room. Urging her to be calm. “No. We can’t think that way. They asked for our help, we need to help them.”

“I agree,” Ami said. Then, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept it, it’s…” she winced. “I’m slipping into bad habits. I’m trying to catch myself. The Mars royal family is involved too, Mulciber and Hephaestus.”

Rei swallowed tightly. The first flash of anger that Ami had kept it from her vanished with the flood of worry for them. “When did they send it?”

“Just now,” Ami said, staring at the screen. “Usagi’s in school.” She paused. “We don’t know what we’ll find. It’ll just be the two of us.”

“We don’t have time,” Rei said. The feeling of dread had solidified for her. Even as she turned her gaze, inevitably, to the Great Fire, she could see what waited for her there: not strangers, but her brothers. In danger. She closed her eyes, taking a deep, cleansing breath before she stood. As she and Ami transformed, Rei could hear the startled gasp of her grandfather from the doorway.


End file.
